BEE-DEVOURING IDIOT BOY. 191 



in bottles. He was a very merops apiaster, or bee-bird, and 

 very injurious to men that kept bees ; for he would slide into 

 their bee-gardens, and, sitting down before the stools, would 

 rap with his finger on the hives, and so take the bees as they 

 came out. He has been known to overturn hives for the sake 

 of honey, of which he was passionately fond. Where metheglin 

 was making, he would linger round the tubs and vessels, 

 begging a draught of what he called bee-wine. As he ran 

 about, he used to make a humming noise with his lips, 

 resembling the buzzing of bees. This lad was lean and 

 sallow, and of a cadaverous complexion ; and, except in his 

 favourite pursuit, in which he was wonderfully adroit, discovered 

 no manner of understanding. Had his capacity been better, 

 and directed to the same object, he had perhaps abated much 

 of our wonder at the feats of a more modern exhibiter of bees ; 

 and we may justly say of him now, 



Thou, 



Had thy presiding star propitious shone, 



Shouldst Wildman be. 



When a tall youth, he was removed from hence to a distant 

 village, where he died, as I understand, before he arrived at 

 manhood. 



LETTER LXX. 

 TO THE HON. DAINES BARRINGTON. 



SELBORNE, January 8, 1776* 



DEAR SIR, It is the hardest thing in the world to shake 

 off superstitious prejudices : they are sucked in, as it were> 

 with our mother's milk ; and, growing up with us at the time 

 when they take the fastest hold, and make the most lasting 

 impressions, become so interwoven into our very constitutions, 

 that the strongest good sense is required to disengage our- 

 selves from them. No wonder, therefore, that the lower people 

 retain them their whole lives through, since their minds are 

 not invigorated by a liberal education, and therefore not 

 enabled to make any efforts adequate to the occasion. 



Such a preamble seems to be necessary before we enter on 

 the superstitions of this district, lest we should be suspected 

 of exaggeration in a recital of practices too gross for this 

 enlightened age. 



But the people of Tring, in Hertfordshire, would do well to 

 remember, that no longer ago than the year 1751, and within 



